Mission statement: On this blog we explore why homeschooling can be a better option for children and families than a traditional classroom setting. We'll also explore homeschooling issues in general, educational thoughts, family issues, and some other random stuff.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

One of the things that happens as markets grow in size is market segmentation. Back twenty years ago when the homeschool movement was still in its infancy there was a very small market for books on homeschooling. Even ten years ago books like "Getting Started on Home Learning" by Rebecca Rupp were fairly general, because the market was still fairly small.

Now with probably over two million children being homeschooled, and a fast growing market, market segmentation is evolving for books on homeschooling. Amazon has hundreds of books on homeschooling. There are books focusing on various aspects of homeschooling. There are books for teaching specific ages of children at home. There are books about homeschooling children in various religious settings. Isabel Lyman's book "The Homeschooling Revolution" focuses on just "What is homeschooling?" The book doesn't try to teach people how to homeschool. All of this is evidence of an increasing market for books on homeschooling, and the increasing development of homeschooling books for targeted markets.

I believe there is a market for a book which focuses on why people homeschool, and why the reader should homeschool. The book could be fairly small, say around 150 pages. My working title is "101 Reasons to Homeschool." There would be chapters on academics, religious, social, fun, and miscellaneous reasons.

The target audience would be1) Those who are considering homeschooling.2) Those who don't plan to homeschool, but want to understand it better. This group would include family, neighbors, and so on.

Every blog has a first blog. Here we'll talk about the purpose of this blog.

The main focus for this blog is to invite feedback and suggestions on selections from a book being written. The working title of the book is "101 Reasons to Homeschool" though we have other ideas we're kicking around, and at some point we may ask people for suggestions.

We'll also talk about homeschooling, education in general, book reviews, and other random ideas and thoughts.